OT: New PC!

Will · #1 January 11th, 2006, 02:58 PM

With the components you have listed, you don't need anywhere near 600 or 680W of power. AMD lists your processor as 110W, your video card is probably in the 60-110W range, hard drive peak power is usually <50W, and I would imagine it's the same for optical disc drives. With what you have, 500W would be more than enough to power it, while allowing you to expand to more drives in the future. But, unless you're powering something like a RAID-5 array of 20 drives, you don't need anywhere near the 680W.

AgentZero · #2 January 11th, 2006, 03:07 PM

Agreed, but considering the 680W is priced about the same as a 500, why not? After all, an extra �10 for an extra 180W seems pretty good to me, considering I'm paying an extra �15 for my DVD drive because the cheaper site doesn't have it in a nice colour. Beige?! Sooo 1990s.

Will · #3 January 11th, 2006, 03:24 PM

Well, that's a good enough reason... besides, you never know when you want to build a cappuccino machine into your case...

Something that I didn't see on your list, though, is a UPS. Since you're investing a lot in this already, it would be a good idea to invest a little bit more so it doesn't go up in a poof of magic smoke if you're hit with a power surge. I got one connected to my monitor and computer, and so far (in 6 months) it's protected from noise 4 times, brown outs twice, and black outs 5 times (they were working on the power around my building a lot a few months back).

Also, for performance, you might want to get a second, smaller/faster hard drive for your system partition. Windows likes to send stuff to the swap file even if you have loads of free RAM still, so having a different drive than the one where all your apps are stored speeds things up a bit more.

Baron Munchausen · #4 January 11th, 2006, 07:28 PM

Yes, a UPS is a very, very good thing to have! A hard crash caused by power failure can make an awful mess of a hard drive. The big names in UPSes for personal systems are APC and Tripp Lite last I recall. Just go to a site like New Egg and go to the UPS section and browse. I am using a Tripp Lite unit that I bought fully 10 years ago. It has saved me from many glitches and I only just had to replace the batteries a few months ago. But since my current unit is good enough, I'm not up on what's available right now.

AgentZero · #5 January 11th, 2006, 08:43 PM

Thanks! Them UPS's aren't the cheapest of things, but I suppose if I'm dropping eur3000+ for the new system, an extra 100 or so won't make that much of a difference. And I won't have to worry about my lovely new system being fried by an unpleasant power spike, either. I'm looking at this one: APC UPS, because it seems to be nice and basic. I don't want to spend a load of money on fancy features I'll never use.

Baron Munchausen · #6 January 11th, 2006, 10:14 PM

420 VA looks kinda scrawny for the machine you are building. The VA (volt amps) rating is supposed to be greater than the power draw of your system. If not, it will simply overload and shut down when the power fails. You'll get a slightly noisier crash than if you had no UPS.

If you are using an LCD instead of a CRT monitor that helps, but a 680 watt power supply demands a similar VA rating. 'Volt amps' are basically equivalent to watts, so you want at least a 680 VA UPS. A 750 is probably a good idea.

Hey, I'm using an 850 VA UPS to run a computer with an 'average' 250 watt power supply and a 19" CRT monitor (it draws a maximum of about 240 watts). Yes, it's much more than 'absolutely necessary'. That just means it lasts longer when the power goes out.

Yes, it's more expensive than the cheapest solution, but you definitely get what you pay for in backup battery power. You might want to go for a 1000 VA UPS -- 1 kw!

Will · #7 January 12th, 2006, 02:07 AM

If you go to a site like NewEgg, they will tell you the VA rating, and the wattage it is designed for. I have an APC BE725BB, which is a 725VA, 450W UPS (I have a 450W PSU). It came with a little monitor utility that lets you set timers when on the backup, so you can have your computer automatically shut down after some time, or hibernate.

Plus, you can use it for general purpose stuff. During the big blackout in LA this fall, I took it down to the lobby, and plugged the radio we have down there into it to figure out what happened (some dude from PG&E cut a wire he wasn't supposed to, and the entire basin got its power cut).

Renegade 13 · #8 January 12th, 2006, 02:31 AM

Quote:

AgentZero said:
...dropping eur3000+ for the new system...

Ouch. Wish I had that much cash lying around to spend on upgrading my system!

narf poit chez BOOM · #9 January 12th, 2006, 03:38 AM

Wish I had that much cash lying around!

Renegade 13 · #10 January 19th, 2006, 10:14 PM

Have a question for those who might know. I recently added another 1GB of RAM to my system, bringing it up to 2GB (4 x 512MB). All the RAM has clock speeds of 400 MHz, and yet they're running at 333. Anyone know why, or if I can boost it up to the supported clock speed?